Very soon after our son Russell was born in Jan 2001, Steve and Kim decided to get serious about choosing a new family name. This is something we had talked about on and off for a few years, but never seriously.
We wanted the name to have meaning to both of us; something that represented our core values. Since we were not yet officially married at the time, a common name would also symbolize our committment to each other and help us operate as a unit.
After lots of reflection and searching, Steve hit upon the word trutane using the Perseus Greek-English Lexicon.
Trutane comes from the Classical Greek word "τρυτάνη" (trutanē in Latin) meaning "balance, pair of scales." Living a balanced life is a core value that we share. So we felt that "Trutane" as a family name had the right combination of deeper meaning, sound, length, pronouncability, and uniqueness (couldn't find anyone with this name anywhere on the internet as of January 2001) to adopt it as our family name.
Russell then became, to our knowledge, the first Trutane with Steve & Kim following a few months later when we got around to filing the necessary legal paperwork. Kim's official, legal name is "Kimberly Ann Trutane". Steve's is "Stephen Chervitz Trutane".
Steve still uses the surname "Chervitz" as his nom de plume for his professional life (since you can't change your publication record).